OGL-Gate & Mainstream Media: The Guardian Weighs In

With The Guardian picking up the story this morning, here's a list of media outlets covering the Open Gaming Licence controversy.

The initial story came from Gizmodo/iO9, which recieved a leaked copy of the OGL v1.1., and YouTube channel RollForCombat.

• The Guardian: ‘People are leaving the game’: Dungeons & Dragons fans revolt against new restrictions
• Vice: Dungeons and Dragons Is Jeopardizing Its Greatest Strength: Its Ubiquity
• Electronic Frontier Foundation: Beware the Gifts of Dragons: How D&D’s Open Gaming License May Have Become a Trap for Creators
• Comic Book Resources: How New Changes to D&D's Open Gaming License Will Impact Other TTRPGs
• Forbes: What’s Happening With The Dungeons & Dragons Open Gaming License?
• Ars Technica: RPG fans irate as D&D tries to shut its “open” game license
• NME: D&D content creators outraged over licensing changes, demand the game remain “open”
• Polygon: D&D’s stricter licensing rules might impact some beloved RPGs
• Law Insider: Wizards of the Coast Open Game License
• Financial Times (behind paywall): Dungeons & Dragons & fear & loathing: When Wizards go rogue

 

[wingsandsword]

To not acknowledge that this is going on and customers are kinda mad about it is really weird - even a "we don't comment on rumors" response is better than just not saying anything at all - at least it shows that you know something is going on that you're not huddled in your office in a fetal position unable to even craft a response.

The "we know something is going on" response was announcing that the announcement scheduled for today is cancelled.

. . .and they seem to have no clue how to proceed past that, because their big plan just ran into an iceberg. Lots of major media sources giving negative reporting, and they're hemorrhaging subscribers on D&D Beyond, which was NOT what they expected to come from what the execs probably saw as a routine business-strategy revision of a license, because they did NOT comprehend the consequences of their actions.

 

[Kinematics]

TechDirt also has an article: WotC Makes Major Changes To D&D OGL License, Sends Community Into A Frenzy

TechDirt is a site that focuses heavily on intellectual property and civil rights issues, from a legal and constitutional perspective. They were also the ones that originally coined the term "Streisand Effect".

 

[Dausuul]

They haven't said a single thing anywhere about any of this.

Unless this is some elaborate PT Barnum "there's no such thing as bad publicity" angle that I'm missing, it feels like corporate malpractice at this point. To not acknowledge that this is going on and customers are kinda mad about it is really weird - even a "we don't comment on rumors" response is better than just not saying anything at all - at least it shows that you know something is going on that you're not huddled in your office in a fetal position unable to even craft a response.

Judging by Linda Codega's latest scoop, they seem to be suffering the organizational equivalent of a DDOS attack. This thing is blowing up so fast and so far that by the time Wizards formulates a response, the situation has changed and sends them back to the drawing board. (The latest hit was the push for people to cancel their DDB subs.)

 

[Quarzis]

That's a weird, badly-researched, and unhelpful article that addresses almost none of the genuine issues. And talking up defunct piracy sites as a demonstration of how innovative D&D fans are to pursue their hobby is ... certainly an interesting journalistic line to take.

Agreed. One of the worst written articles I have ever seen. I particularly like how they try to explain adventures by calling them "plans" - as if regular everyday people that read the Guardian don't know what adventure means. I guess it is nice that mainstream media is taking notice... can only help the cause, but, talk about cringe reporting.

 

[EthanSental]

Some good, some not so good articles….probably link the authors to ones who went to journalism in college for a degree and the “online” journalism we get from more social media investigative learning.

I see people also claim that dndbeyond subscribers leaving in droves….where is this coming from other than replies on here saying they cancelled?

 

[Composer99]

There have got to be at least a few folks at WotC and Hasbro thinking...

It also wouldn't surprise me if the Guardian gets taken to task by fans in the comments (if their articles still allow them?) for inaccuracies. Maybe enough to make some corrections? But maybe not.

 

[Dausuul]

I see people also claim that dndbeyond subscribers leaving in droves….where is this coming from other than replies on here saying they cancelled?

Linda Codega, who has been on this whole thing from the get-go:

"A stream of subscribers turning off their payment to D&D Beyond appeared to temporarily shut down the landing page for subscription cancellations because of server errors. ... The result of these cancellations and their impact on the bottom line of Wizards of the Coast is not negligible, according to io9's sources at the company, and has caused upper management to scramble to adjust their messaging around the situation, leading to the delays in the OGL release."

 

[Clint_L]

Setting the OGL controversy aside, it is often adorable when mainstream media outlets cover our hobby and misunderstand half of what they are talking about. Never change, guys. Never change.

 

[Burt Baccara]

They haven't said a single thing anywhere about any of this.

Unless this is some elaborate PT Barnum "there's no such thing as bad publicity" angle that I'm missing, it feels like corporate malpractice at this point. To not acknowledge that this is going on and customers are kinda mad about it is really weird - even a "we don't comment on rumors" response is better than just not saying anything at all - at least it shows that you know something is going on that you're not huddled in your office in a fetal position unable to even craft a response.

I also always forget about the Daily Mail too. But in fairness that's because if I see a Daily Mail link I look for someone else's reporting to make sure it's an actual story and not something made up whole cloth. The Onion seems to be more rigorous in their "reporting" than the Daily Mail.

According to the message sent by someone claiming to work at D&D Beyond, the top brass are waiting for the fans to calm down. That poured even more fuel on the cancelation of D&D Beyond accounts and now has spilled over into non-gaming and business news. One day, this whole thing will be a business case study.

 

[rgard]

Unfortunately, you forget the Daily Mail, which is (sadly) much more popular both domestically and worldwide.

That's where Americans go to get their US news.